The study’s conclusion suggests that the current model of the flipped classroom should itself be flipped upside down. The researchers advocate the “flipped flipped classroom,” in which videos come after exploration and not before.

Now this post regarding a "Flipped Classroom" approach really has me reflecting upon how I have already incorporated some "flipped" concepts into my pre-service student course. Time to make curriculum adjustments!

Thanks to Nik Peachey for sharing this on his scoop.it site "Learning-Technology".

Experimenting first sounds good, though I think it depends on the learner and on what is being taught. I like the idea of pushing the envelop to be more inclusive...yet not throwing out things that continue to work (for some types of learners).

Before enthusiastic school technology leaders start drawing up blueprints for their makerspaces, there's lots of planning that needs to take place, said Russ Jarowski, director of technology at Miss Hall's School, a private school for girls in Pittsfield, MA, who has been involved in the development of several makerspaces over the last 10 years, including at University of Maryland-Baltimore County. It won't help to build out a space if students don't show up and if parents don't support it, he said. "Also, unless its purpose is aligned with school culture and values, it will not succeed," he warned.

Speaking at the annual ISTE Conference in Philadelphia June 29, Jarowski detailed eight steps to work through in the creation of a successful child-centered academic makerspace.

The partnership with the U.S. tech giant to build Glass—the Internet-connected eyewear—is going ahead, said Massimo Vian, speaking at the company’s general meeting in Milan, Italy.

Earlier this year, Google stopped selling the first version of Glass and shut its Explorer program, moving the project out of its Google X research lab into a standalone unit. Yet the firm made clear that it was still working to make the eyewear ready for users.

Teachers are always searching for tools to make their lives easier. And so are we. That's why we created the Tools for Teachers ebook series, showcasing free online tools for all kinds of classroom environments.

This eBook volume covers tools for media production—video, photo, and podcasting. Exploring these terrific free tools will help you:

Education is a pretty hot-button issue for so many people out there. The issues in education are numerous and varied, and interestingly, many people find themselves feeling pretty strongly about one or two issues, and could take or leave many of the others. So whether special needs students, public funding, gender equality in education, or something else is ‘your’ issue, you can at least understand that many facets of education get people fired up.

"Below are six TED Talks that each address different aspects of education. You may look at some of the titles and think “that’s not ‘my’ issue”, but each one carries an important message and is worth the few minutes it will take to watch. These talks will both get you thinking about different issues, and will make you proud, angry, sad, excited, and inspired all at the same time."

What do personal computers, cell phones, and digital cameras have in common? They all started on the fringes. Then they hit a tipping point and, suddenly, they were everywhere.

This past year, I believe “open curriculum” — or curriculum that is free and adaptable — hit a similar tipping point in K-12 education. For the first time, more school districts chose an open curriculum over work developed by traditional publishers, like Pearson.

Companies cannot hire fast enough. Glassdoor, an employment site, lists more than 7,300 openings for software engineers, ahead of job openings for nurses, who are chronically in short supply. For the smaller category of data scientists, there are more than 1,200 job openings. Demand is highest in San Francisco. Nationally, the average base salary for software engineers is $100,000, and $112,000 for data scientists.

"Question: Do you have any great ideas for STEM (or STEAM) programs. I am a new librarian and I was asked to incorporate STEM programs into our fall programming. The age level would probably be tweens (or perhaps 3rd grade and up). I would love any input you have, including websites, ideas, etc."

Jim Lerman's insight: A number of very clever suggestions by teachers and librarians.

"For anyone who blogs or otherwise posts content on the web, one of the vexing tasks can be finding the perfect Creative Commons (CC) image to illustrate one's content. Enter PhotoPin. To use the service, start by entering a keyword into the search box. PhotoPin will then present all related, useable images from Flickr's collection. After reviewing the list, simply select "get photo" to download the photo and attribution link, and upload to your site or blog. For those interested in learning more about CC licensed photos, the FAQ offers a wealth of information."

"Cities around the world run into a range of burdensome difficulties, from dwelling deficits to infrastructure problems to inefficient services to environmental pollution. The field of Urban Engineering attempts to address these complications with cost-effective and implementable strategies. This open access book outlines solutions related to urban automation, geographic information systems (GIS), monitoring and management of urban noise, floods, transportation, and many other topics. Each chapter of the book is available for individual download and covers a distinct topic. For instance, Chapter 3 focuses on "Experiences with the Ubranisation of Slums: Management and Intervention Models," while Chapter 10 looks at "Urban Flood Control, Simulation and Management - An Integrated Approach." For readers interested in understanding more about Urban Engineering, this freely accessible online book will provide a thorough introduction."

"Google Classroom, the company’s educational initiative that launched last year to allow teachers and students to communicate and collaborate with each other using Google tools and services, has today received a number of new features, the most notable being a new Classroom API for admins, and a Classroom share button. The latter lets developers or schools simplify sharing content – including links, videos and images from around the web – with the Classroom platform. It’s being launched alongside 20 educational content and tool providers such as PBS, Quizlet, the American Museum of Natural History, Discovery Education, Duolingo, and TIME for Kids, among other.

"Today’s news is about making it easier for admins, developers and schools to integrate and extend the use of Classroom. With the Classroom API, now in developer preview, admins will be able to more easily set up, provision and populate Classroom on behalf of teachers, as well as sync content from their Student Information Systems with Classroom and gain insight into which classes are being taught in their domain."

"With the flipped classroom model, the goal is to free up time during class sessions in order to provide active support to students when they need it. I like the idea of active support because this is how it feels to me during the class sessions."

The low cost of good quality web cams and the availability of free or relatively inexpensive screencasting applications helps to make the development of video learning content easier than ever. Yet all the free or low cost tools in the world do not inevitably yield good quality results. There is an essential element of technique to be considered. If one is going to invest time and energy (and budget dollars) in tools for the creation of video content, it is highly advisable to learn a bit about how to do what you are doing well.

With the above in mind, I’ve searched the web and selected ideas from a handful of good web resources and articles on the subject. These tips and techniques can help anyone create good quality, engaging screen casts. (Note that I have embellished many of these tips with some comments of my own, in parenthesis).

"Minecraft is an immersive learning environment that has started as a game about creating, exploring and managing resources before it becomes one of the leading educational learning platforms for students. A few days ago, Microsoft, Minecraft’s parent company, announced the release of a new website, Minecraft for Education, geared towards providing teachers with a forum where they can share their ideas about how they use Minecraft in their teaching."

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) has released a new report, Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015, that examines the history of blended learning and offers a range of implementation insights through several case studies.

"Blended learning, also referred to as hybrid learning, combines the best features of traditional schooling with the advantages of online learning to deliver personalized, differentiated instruction across a group of learners," according to the report. "Students in formal blended learning educational programs learn online part of the time, yet have the benefit of face-to-face instruction and supervision to maximize their learning and to best fit their own needs."

Blended learning models generally fall into one of four categories, according to the report's authors, originally identified through research from the Clayton Christensen Institute. Those models include:

Teachers are always searching for tools to make their lives easier. And so are we. That's why we created the Tools for Teachers ebook series, showcasing free online tools for all kinds of classroom environments.

You know that real-world scenarios will engage students, deepen learning and provide rich problem-solving opportunities. Many educators struggle with how to connect ideas from the curriculum to these learning opportunities. We created these resources to help get you going!

This Ideas eBook will provide proven top quality scenarios that are easily customizable. These ideas will:

My students adore Vi Hart videos. I think the kids understand maybe 1/2 of what she is saying, but she makes math fun and stimulates their curiosity.

“Parable of the Polygons” is an interactive website that was created by Vi Hart and Nicky Case. Having watched several Vi Hart videos, I expected the site to do one of the things Vi does best – teach me math. But I was mistaken. “Parable of the Polygons” uses math to teach about racism, sexism, (and all of the other negative”isms”) and what we can do to help eradicate them.

Windows 10, the next version of Microsoft’s operating system, arrives on Wednesday, and it will have a familiar look and feel to the more than one billion people who have touched a Windows computer in the last two decades.

That is a stark change from the last time Microsoft made a big revision to its operating system, in 2012 with the release of Windows 8 — a release that didn’t go so well. Many customers were confused by the flurry of changes that were designed for so-called hybrid devices that doubled as PCs and tablets. Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, said last year that the company “got a few places wrong in Windows 8.”

With Windows 10, Microsoft is offering something of a throwback to the earlier versions. The software also comes with an enticing price tag for users of Windows 7 and 8: free. But perhaps more than anything, there are a handful of new features that might make users consider making the switch.

"Stoodle is an online whiteboard service supported in part by the CK-12 Foundation. Through Stoodle you can quickly create a collaborative whiteboard space. On your whiteboard you can type, draw, and upload images. You can connect Stoodle to your computer's microphone and talk your collaborators while drawing, typing, or sharing images."

"Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler has an interactive Tumblr Blog called The Why We Broke Up Project, where readers can submit their own breakup stories and read those of others. Along with the tumblr, there is also a musical playlist curated by Handler that can be found here. Creating a way for readers to further relate with the characters of the book, Handler’s “Why We Broke Up Project” is as humorous as he is, and also includes replies from him directly to readers.

"Seeking out content that intertwines with your collection can be fun, especially now that so many are taking the leap, but can you create your own transmedia, crossmedia, and immersive experiences for books your teens already know and love? Of course you can! Here’s a few short ideas."

Jim Lerman's insight:

This approach is a great way to get students involved in their reading, and to extend reading into numerous making and transdisciplinary activities. This article is definitely worth reading!

"The Discovery Channel's Shark Week drew record ratings this year, netting more than 2.5 million viewers. What is it about sharks that so captivates our attention? The Shark Research Institute (SRI) website might provide a few answers to that question. Readers might like to start with SRI Alerts, which links to coverage of all things shark-related from around the web. Next, the About Sharks section features information concerning dozens of shark species listed in alphabetical order, as well as shark videos and a shark photo gallery. Links to the Global Shark Attack File, a site devoted to providing current and hsitorical data on shark/human interactions, can also be found here. The Education section is another great feature of this site, with Games, Handouts for Teachers, a Whale Shark Q&A, and a section on Kids Making a Difference, which profiles a number of children who have made contributions to shark conservation and research."

"As the official blog of the U.S. Department of Education, Homeroom addresses dozens of issues with multiple posts every week. Some of the posts are primarily text-based, others lean heavily on well-developed graphs, charts, and other graphics, and still others include videos about programs, teachers, students, and communities. Homeroom can be scouted via an efficient search function. Readers may also like to peruse the offerings by scrolling through the several dozen categories, which cover College Completion, Success Stories, Headlines, Interviews, and many others. Recent stories have included a graphically oriented narrative about the progress of the Elementary and Secondary Act, and an educator's account of her time at Edcamp, a conference that brings together teachers from around the nation to discuss problems and solutions in today's educational environments."

"As someone who primarily taught math and science when I was a classroom teacher, I associated robots, robotics curriculum, and robot apps as things that were only used in those subjects. However, this past year my school received a robot grant that provided ten robots for us from the company Sphero. Sphero emphasizes the power of play in education and has a variety of lessons that are aligned to the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards on their website. They also have a number of STEM challenges in the form pre-designed engineering projects designed for collaborative group work with students and are helpful for teachers using the robots in their classes.

"During the last week of June, I did a presentation at the ISTE conference with many other educators from all over the country who also received the robot grant. What amazed me was that people who taught subjects like language arts and social studies found incredible ways to integrate robotics into their curriculum to create some really engaging lessons for their students."

"Augmented Reality is one of the most interesting and exciting tools emerging in the academic world today. Here are a handful of videos showing many fun, engaging ways in which educators and students are using it."

This is actually very beneficial to both students and teachers. There are always new and innovating ways to incorporate fun facts with academics. Not only is this new tool involving the both teachers and students, but it is also teaching and giving teachers and students new facts about interesting areas of education. This is something that has to be showcased around all districts.

Teacher Craft is about how teachers learn to use new digital media. Teacher learning is central to reform and change across subject areas and age levels, but how much do we really know about how teachers learn to try new lessons in classrooms? Minecraft is currently the game of choice for millions of youth and also for these seventeen teachers who claim it has transformed their classrooms. Its rapid adoption also provides a unique window of opportunity to look inside the recent memory of innovative teachers and unpack how they learned. Why did they pick Minecraft? More importantly, how did they pick Minecraft? Where did they hear about it? Who do they trust for ideas? How do they test new ideas? Can we begin to identify the trajectories of truly innovative teachers? It turns out, we can - and it may not be what you’d expect.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License

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